Rally of Great Britain: Olly Marshall debut summary

Mechanical woe for Marshall in Wales
[York] Escrick driver Olly Marshall enjoyed his debut outing on the
World Rally Championship this weekend, as the 22 year old took on the
very best in the world at the Cardiff based Wales Rally GB in his ...

Mechanical woe for Marshall in Wales

[York] Escrick driver Olly Marshall enjoyed his debut outing on the
World Rally Championship this weekend, as the 22 year old took on the
very best in the world at the Cardiff based Wales Rally GB in his Peugeot
206 Super Cup Car with Welshpool's Craig Parry on the pace notes.

Marshall had climbed to an impressive 44th overall on the four day rally
held in the famously challenging forests of South and West Wales.
Unfortunately for the Kumho Tyres shod driver, a differential failure in
the Peugeot's transmission forced Olly to retire on SS13 of the rally.

Marshall started the long rally steadily in his ProSpeed Motorsport run
machine. The final round of the World Rally Championship is nearly twice
or three times as long as the rallies Marshall has been contesting this
season, and the young Yorkshireman decided to settle himself into the
rally on the long opening stages of Brechfa and Trawscoed.

As the rally moved into the forests around the village of Glyn Neath,
Marshall encountered his first problem of the event, when the Peugeot's
rear suspension dampers overheated in the near 43 kilometre long Resolven
stage. The stage contained rough sections which didn't help the Kumho
backed machine, as Marshall returned to service for a precautionary
suspension change.

A switch to a slightly harder compound Kumho gravel tyre also gave Olly
renewed confidence as he headed for the final loop of second day stages.
The Peugeot crew ended the day with a blast round the Cardiff Bay "Super
Special Stage", where Marshall was unfortunate to lose the car's washer
bottle after a heavy landing on the spectator friendly test. Despite
that problem, Olly and Craig returned to the overnight halt in Cardiff
happy to have kept the learning experience going, after an enjoyable but
tiring day of rallying.

Saturday morning would see the crews venture north to the forests of
Halfway and Crychan. Early riser Marshall was very much into his stride
on the classic gravel stages, as he began to climb the leaderboard that
was being dominated by more powerful front and four wheel drive
opposition. With the ProSpeed man running near the back of the field,
conditions could be very changeable in the stages, so concentration and
focus was vital as Olly continued to press on.

Overheating dampers had given a slight cause for concern on the second
visit to Resolven once again, but the ProSpeed Motorsport mechanics
immediately restored the Peugeot to full health for the final loop of
stages on the penultimate day, both held within the Margam Forestry
complex.

Despite having driven on some of the roughest sections of stages he could
remember in his short driving career, Marshall had not had any punctures
on the rally up until the twelfth stage of the rally. A front right
puncture with five miles to go didn't cost the team a huge amount of
time, and Marshall and Parry changed the tyre at the end of the stage
before setting off to Margam Park for the thirteenth stage.
Unfortunately, it was to be an unlucky 13 for Olly and Craig.

Approaching junction 10 of the stage, Marshall accelerated out of a
hairpin, but the car immediately revved far higher than normal, without
any forward motion. Olly tried to select a gear, including reverse, but
unfortunately the cars differential had broken, and all drive to the
wheels had gone. It had been a hard fought battle to keep the 206 on the
road at times due to the ruts in places, but Olly had no option but to
retire. The biggest challenge of his rallying career had unfortunately
come to a premature end:

"I was really disappointed to have to retire" commented Olly after being
towed from the stage. "The Kumho Tyres had been working really well on
the event once we switched to a harder compound, and the 206 also stood
up really well to the rough stages. There was no warning that the
differential was going to let go, so it was incredibly frustrating to
have to park up so close to the end of the penultimate day.

However, you have to take the positives out of the weekend. We wanted to
gain experience of the World Rally Championship, and we certainly did
that. The other key objective was to get as much mileage as possible
from the event, to gain better knowledge of the stages. With a few of
the stages being used more than once, we were able to gather a lot of
information from the stages.

The Rhondda stage was the only test that we didn't get to compete over,
so we really have learned a lot, and we've also shown that the ProSpeed
Motorsport team can cope with the rigours and demands of rallying's
biggest stage. Overall, both Craig and myself were delighted with what
we achieved as a whole team, but equally, we were both very disappointed
not to reach the end of what was a brilliant rally.

Marshall now returns to the team base in Sherburn-in-Elmet near York to
prepare for the final of the Prospeed Motorsport Rally Scholarship this
coming Friday. Six drivers will compete for the prize of a fully funded
drive in the Peugeot 206 Winter Cup, held over three rallies in 2003/4.
Judges on the day include Jonny Milner, the double British Rally
Champion, and other industry experts who will choose a worthy winner from
drivers based in such diverse places as South Africa, the Czech Republic,
and North Wales!